Sorry that this is quite a general PC question, but I do use my CD/DVD
drives for various music related things so it kind of fits....!

Basically, I
have a problem in that my drives do not always eject. They sometimes do and sometimes
don't. No pattern as far as I can tell. It happens to both of them, and sometimes (but
not all the time) if I go to My Computer and Right Click > Eject - the drive opens.

I'm still having a problem with this, just learning to live with it and
use a thin screwdriver to open the drives when they get stuck. Pain in the bum
though..... So if anyone else out there has been able to fix a similar problem, or has
any other info, please let me know.

I have emailed Pioneer and will report back
if their response is helpful.

I guess I could (and may have to) just buy new
ones, but I'm more of a "fix it" than "replace it" type of guy, and if nothing else it
will mean two less items in landfill!

Probably just the mechanism jamming. You could strip it and check everything by powering
it whilst in pieces on the desk and see if anything is obviously getting stuck. Chances
are through you won't be able to spot anything.

Whilst keeping junk out of
the land fill is always an great intention, getting the drive fixed would cost you more to
ship it back to Pioneer than just to buy a new one.

You can however have some
fun with the laser component if your going to take it apart... as long as you keep them
away from small children, pets and anything flammable.

Thanks for the commendation. And thanks for the
youtube link. However, I *think* that the drive would not be opening at all if the band
was broken, rather than being randomly intermittent. What do you think?